Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will focus on a statement made over the weekend by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association. It was quite a critique of where Sláintecare is going and the state of our public health services. It was a very thorough critique of where we are. The association said that there was a severe shortage of consultants in the public health service and that 838 consultant places need to be filled. Nearly 1 million people are on some form of waiting list via the National Treatment Purchase Fund. The association says that if this continues, the waiting lists, which are at the heart of the dysfunction in our public health service, will accelerate. This situation could continue for decades. Given all that, surely the issues identified by the association must be addressed, particularly vacancies in the public health system. If they are not addressed, we will be having the same conversation next year, the following year and the following year. The waiting lists for procedures have accelerated, particularly in the past number of years because of Covid. If these issues are not addressed, Sláintecare will be largely academic.